Thursday, March 24, 2016

The event
was organized by INLW, Rutgers, UN watch
and Liberal International.

Margaret de
Vos van Steenwijk, President of INLW, was the chair during the discussion.

Juliana
Nikolova from Liberal Party of Macedonia stressed the importance of the
protection of all women, moreover gender equality should be accepted on an
international level. “There is no excuse for my country not to sign and ratify
the Istanbul Convention. The Liberal Party will go on campaigning to this end,
because violence against women and girls and domestic violence should fall
under an international legally binding instrument."

Patricia
Olamendi is consultant for the US Women and Human Rights. She is from Mexico.
She gave us an insight in the amount of violence against women in her country. Seven women die every day in Mexico due to violence! The Inter-American Convention
(1994) on violence against women is a beginning for legislation, “but an
International instrument such as a globalized Istanbul Convention is necessary in
the Latin American countries to get solid implementation. That will be the only
way to make a real difference in the future”.

Fouzia El
Bayed is Member of Parliament for Constitutional Union Party in Morocco.After
the Constitution change of 2011 all laws are gradually being adapted to conform
to the Istanbul Conventions. Even the programs at school are rewritten. Fouzia
is as member of the Arab Women Parliamentarians Network of Equality. “I have
started a commission to prepare a similar document to the Istanbul Convention for
the Arab world. This is done with 17 other Arab countries”.

Jeroen
Lorist, technical advisor at Rutgers WPF Netherlands and the Prevention+
project, started with the importance of institutions and NGO’s working together
for gender equality, whereby involvement of men in the battle of violence
against women is crucial. This should be done on all levels, individual,
family, group, institutions and legislation level. Culture, values and customs
in masculinity must be recognized and changed. A short film showed the impact
of a new attitude of respect of women’s rights on men and women.

After their introductions one of the questions Margaret asked was: Is more legislation needed? Is an all encompassing comprehensive international legal framework on ending violence against women the answer? All participants agreed that International legislation is necessary, but at the same time education and a change of attitude of local authorities is crucial!

We
are a diverse group of young feminist advocates, gathered in New York at the
Sixtieth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), working for
gender, reproductive, economic, ecological, and social justice and political
transformation. We applaud the commitments governments have made under the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development to guarantee gender equality, eliminate all forms of discrimination
and violence against us, and achieve the full and meaningful realisation of our
human rights. We emphasize that the Beijing Platform for Action and Agenda 2030
are linked and valuable strategies for women’s and girls’ empowerment, the
realization of their human rights and sustainable development. We call on the
CSW to play a strong role in monitoring the implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action whilst establishing strong linkages with the relevant goals
and targets of the SDGs. In both processes, the meaningful participation and
engagement of all young people at all levels should be ensured. We, the young
feminist caucus, affirm this statement as a supplement to the official CSW Youth
Forum Declaration, further emphasizing our priorities.

As
we begin to implement the Sustainable Development Goals in coordination with
the Beijing Platform for Action, we urge the CSW to address the following
priorities for young people in all our diversity. Moreover, sexual and
reproductive health and rights are human rights and together we emphasize the
cross-cutting centrality of realizing these rights to achieve social justice,
women’s and girls’ empowerment, and sustainable development. We call on
governments to:

Youth Participation

Ensure
the meaningful, full and effective participation of young people and
underrepresented groups in political spaces, decision making platforms and
accountability mechanisms, at all levels, including in formulating, developing,
implementing and evaluating laws, policies, plans and budgets. Therefore we
call for the creation of safe, enabling and inclusive environments for building
the leadership of young women, adolescents and girls in local, provincial and
national governments, as well as at international convenings. We emphasize that
youth participation cannot be tokenistic, needs to be paired with financial,
educational, and logistical support, and must be free from all forms of
gender-based harassment and violence.

Climate Change and Justice

Recognize
that the current growth-led model of development directly contributes to
climate change and the associated violations of human rights that
disproportionately affect young women, adolescents, and girls. We urge all
stakeholders to ensure equal access to land, property, and sustainable and
environmentally safe development, including access to technology and capital
for young women, adolescents and girls. Members states must preserve the right
of indigenous peoples over their land and territory, especially in the face of
encroaching private sector development. We ask for the implementation of gender-sensitive
responses in reference to the Paris Agreement, ahead of the UNFCCC Conference
of Parties 22 in Marrakech.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Legal Barriers

Ensure
the full realization of sexual and reproductive rights through the repeal of
discriminatory laws and policies such as parental and spousal consent laws,
laws that criminalize abortion, and laws that criminalize individuals on the
basis of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sexual
practices, HIV status and transmission, and labour choices, including sex work.
We call on governments to protect and promote legal recourse and access to
justice and remedies when the sexual and reproductive rights of young people
are violated.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Services

Ensure
the provision of evidence and rights-based, universal, comprehensive, quality,
accessible, affordable, non-judgmental, confidential, gender-sensitive,
youth-friendly information and services for all young people without coercion,
and including in humanitarian settings. This covers, but is not limited to, a
full range of voluntary contraceptive options (including emergency
contraception and long acting reversible contraception), mental health
services, maternal health services, safe and legal abortion services,
treatment, care and support for sexually transmitted infections and HIV and
AIDS, as well as freedom from forced, coerced, uninformed and non-consensual
sterilization and medical testings. We call for an end to stigma and
discrimination in healthcare provision, through increased awareness among
health sciences students, doctors-in-training, physicians, healthcare
professionals, and community workers on sexual and reproductive health and
rights. We urge governments to promote and defend anti-discrimination
legislation across health services.

Education

Prioritize
the education of young women, adolescents and girls and strengthen policies and
programmes that ensure equal access to longitudinal education for all young
people. We emphasize the importance of gender inclusive quality education with
relevant curricula which prioritises holistic learning methods, including
mentorship and skills development, and that prepares young women, adolescents,
and girls for decent work, equitable employment opportunities and
entrepreneurship. We urge governments to train educators on gender-sensitive
policies and practices to end discrimination and stigma in academic settings.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Prioritize
the adoption and successful implementation of evidence-based, medically
accurate, universally accessible, quality, non-judgmental comprehensive
sexuality education. This must emphasize human sexuality, sexual pleasure,
gender equality, human rights, healthy relationships, and sexual and reproductive
health, and be provided in a safe and participatory environment that caters to
formal and informal education systems, for all young people.

Gender Based Violence

Strengthen
their response to gender-based violence, putting into action the measures outlined
in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These actions must take
into account multifaceted forms of violence including early and forced
marriage, sexual violence, online violence, intimate partner violence, coerced
labour, rape (including marital rape), violence in educational institutions,
harmful traditional practices, violence on the basis of sexual orientation,
gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics, violence as a product
of religious fundamentalisms, coerced and forced sterilization, and violence
within conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings. Governments must
recognize the psychological and emotional effects of trauma, including transgenerational
violence, and include this in their response to gender-based violence.

Conclusion

In
order for the 2030 Agenda and the Beijing Platform for Action to become a
reality for all young people, it is necessary to fully integrate all of the above
priorities across all implementation strategies. We call on governments to
measure progress with gender-sensitive, and youth and adolescent specific
indicators, supported with data disaggregated by gender and age and other
necessary information in order to monitor inequalities and discrimination
across intersectional identities. The above priorities must be supported by
clear funding and resourcing frameworks.

We
call on governments to recognize that we, as young people, are rights-holders
as well as experts in our own experiences. We are not “vulnerable”, we are not
a “dividend” to cash in on, we are not “the future”; we are here. We ask that
our voices be heard and that our agency over our bodies, our lives, and our
communities be acknowledged.